The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes 2016: By The Numbers

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The 100 top-earning athletes around the globe cumulatively banked $3.15 billion over the last 12 months, a notch below last year’s record total of $3.22 billion, which was fueled by the blockbuster fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. The two boxers ranked first and second last year with a combined $460 million. This year the two earned $68 million and ranked No. 16 (Mayweather) and No. 63 (Pacquiao). Overall earnings for the top 100 were down, but endorsement income rose 11% to $924 million.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo lands the top spot with earnings of $88 million. This is the first year since 2001 someone besides Mayweather or Tiger Woods ranked first. It is tougher than ever to crack the top 100 with the cutoff up $2 million to $20.8 million. San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey landed at No. 100.

LeBron James rises up three spots to No. 3 overall with earnings of $77.2 million over the last 12 months. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images)

Here is a breakdown of the numbers behind the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes

Sport

Athletes from 10 different sports made the cut. Baseball players were the most dominant with 26 led by Clayton Kershaw at No. 33 with $32 million. The NFL (21 athletes), NBA (18) and soccer (12) were the next most prolific sports. The explosion in TV money is goosing salaries in these team sports. Seven tennis players made the cut along with six race car drivers, five golfers and three boxers. Track and mixed martial arts both placed one athlete with Usain Bolt at No. 32 ($32.5 million) and Conor McGregor at No. 85 ($22 million).

Nationality

There are 23 countries represented among the top 100 with Americans (65) the most prevalent thanks to soaring salaries in baseball, basketball and football. Five Brits landed in the top 100 led by F1 driver Lewis Hamilton at No. 11 and $46 million. Hamilton signed a contract extension to drive for Mercedes and won his second straight F1 World Championship. Three athletes each made the cut from Argentina, Germany and the Dominican Republic.

The average age of the top 100 is 31. Seven athletes in their 40s made the cut with golfer Phil Mickelson, who turns 46 this month, the oldest. He’s followed by Nascar’s Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 41, and New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, who turns 41 in July. Golfer Jordan Spieth, 22, is the youngest by 16 months. Next up are the NBA’s Kyrie Irving and Brazilian soccer icon, Neymar, who are both 24.

Newcomers/Dropoffs

There are 33 new members of the list who didn’t make the cut in 2015, including five returnees like A-Rod and Tom Brady. The top-ranked newcomer is Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton, who ranks No. 7 at $53.1 million, including $12 million from endorsements (we include Newton’s $10 million March 2016 option bonus as “earned” income during our time period even though it was deferred for 12 months).

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who ranked No. 11 , is the biggest dropoff. Big Ben was listed at $48.9 million last year thanks to his March 2015 contract extension that included a $31 million signing bonus. The biggest gainer this year is Spieth who moved up from No. 85 to No. 9, thanks to his $10 million
FedEx Cup payday, new endorsements, rich appearance fees and sponsor bonuses from winning two major tournaments.

Sponsors

Nike’s 2015 annual report showed the company had $6.2 billion in future obligations committed to athletes, teams, leagues and colleges for sponsorships. The $31 billion-in-sales sports giant has endorsement relationships with exactly half the 100 top-paid athletes. The deals range from a lifetime agreement with LeBron James that could exceed $1 billion to ones that include free product and minimal cash that might be worth $25,000.

PepsiCo, including its
Gatorade brand has relationships with 17 athletes.
Adidas and its subsidiaries, Reebok and TaylorMade, landed 14 athletes on the list. Rawlings has deals with 14 baseball players in the top 100, while
Under Armour is affiliated with 13, including reigning MVPs Newton and Stephen Curry, along with PGA Tour Player of the Year Spieth.

Agencies

As far as playing contracts go, CAA landed the most clients among the top 100 with 21, including 11 NFL players (CAA also handles endorsements for an additional three soccer players, including Ronaldo).
Excel Sports Management ranked second with nine athletes.
Relativity Sports, Roc Nation Sports and
WME-IMG all had five athletes make the cut (WME-IMG also works off the field/court with an additional six athletes). Eleven athletes don’t have an official agent by our count.

Ronaldo is the biggest star on social media with 215 million followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He is also the most valuable with his promoted posts over the last 12 months generating $176 million in media value for brands, according to Hookit, which tracks the social engagement of athletes. Lionel Messi and Neymar have the next largest followings with 131 million and 129 million. Eleven athletes are not on social media at all. Curry’s promoted posts were worth $24 million, which trails only Ronaldo.

Methodology

Forbes earnings figures include all salaries and bonuses earned between June 1, 2015 and June 1, 2016. In the case of baseball players, the listed salary will include salary from the 2015 and 2016 seasons, as well as any signing, award or playoff bonuses. Winnings for golfers and tennis players represent their prize money over that period.

Endorsement incomes are an estimate of sponsorship deals, appearance fees and licensing income for the 12 months through June 1 based on conversations with dozens of industry insiders. The golfers’ income includes course design work. We do not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees and we do not include investment income.

Our list only includes athletes active during the last 12 months. Michael Jordan outearns every active athlete and banked $110 million in 2015 to rank first among the highest-paid retired athletes thanks to brisk sales of Nike’s Jordan brand. Four iconic athletes in Mayweather, Pacquiao, Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant walked away from their sports over the past year, but made the top 100 thanks to their earnings over the past 12 months. They will be gunning to join Jordan among the best-paid retired stars (a caveat: the word retirement is used very loosely in boxing).

I am a senior editor at Forbes and focus mainly on the business of sports and our annual franchise valuations. I also spend a lot of my time digging into what athletes earn on and off the field of play. I've profiled a bunch of athletes that go by one name: LeBron, Shaq, Da...